4/19/07
Mayor Richard M. Daley said today he will recommend that the Chicago Transit Authority Board name Ron Huberman President, replacing Frank Kruesi, who resigned after 9? years as the transit agency's chief executive officer.
Huberman has been Daley's Chief of Staff for the last two years and previously served as Executive Director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
"Ron has done an outstanding job of making City government run more efficiently and effectively," Daley said at a City Hall news conference. "His Performance Management Initiative sets standards for every employee and holds managers strictly accountable for the performance of their departments. This has enabled us to maintain high-quality services to Chicago residents while holding taxes down.
"I?m challenging Ron to apply those skills to the CTA. I want him to examine the CTA from top to bottom, reduce costs wherever possible and make whatever changes are necessary to make it run more efficiently.
?I want to have a transportation system that meets the needs of riders and keeps our economy strong, and I want to be assured that riders and taxpayers are getting their money's worth. And I know the Illinois General Assembly will demand that same assurance as a condition of providing the increased funding the CTA needs so badly."
Daley said Kruesi ?has been a valuable member of my administration for many years, and I know I?ll be calling on him for assistance in the future."
The Mayor noted that under Kruesi's leadership, the CTA's total ridership rose to its highest level since 1993 and rail ridership rose to its highest level since 1969.
Under Kruesi's leadership, Daley noted, the CTA reconstructed the 54th/Cermak branch of the Blue Line and the Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line; secured state and federal funding for the reconstruction of the Brown Line, which is well underway; opened the Pink Line; added more than 1,200 buses in the fleet and made all buses handicapped accessible; rehabbed 600 rail cars; reduced bus emissions by 22 percent through new technology; and introduced the Chicago Card.
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